Legg Mason cuts about 8 pct of corporate staff

BALTIMORE - The investment firm Legg Mason said Friday it is cutting about 8 percent of its corporate staff in response to severe market conditions.

The Baltimore-based company said the cuts are part of an effort to eliminate $120 million in corporate expenses by the March 31 end of its fiscal year.

"We believe that this reduction in staff will have no effect on our ability to serve clients, work with business partners and compete for assets around the world," the company said in a statement.

Legg Mason spokeswoman Mary Athridge said the company has a corporate staff of more than 2,000 people and that the job cuts would come to less than 200. She was unable to be more specific.

She said about 100 of the jobs being cut are in Baltimore, with others in New York, Stamford, Conn., and overseas.

The cuts don't affect the company's investment affiliates, which make staffing decisions themselves, she said.

The job cuts are the latest in a string for the reeling financial industry. Most notably, Citigroup Inc. announced last month that it expects to shed about 53,000 in coming quarters to deal with losses from bad debt. JPMorgan Chase & Co., meanwhile, said it plans to cut 9,200 positions at Washington Mutual, which it acquired at the height of the credit crisis this fall.

Legg Mason Inc., which recently posted a worse-than-expected fiscal second-quarter loss, said earlier this week that it had amended its debt covenants to allow it to carry more debt and announced hefty charges related to some risky investments it still holds.

Its shares rose $1.70 to $18.15 in afternoon trading, having traded in a 52-week range of $11.09 to $75.33.

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